Tapes
by WastefulReverie
Summary: One day, Maddie notices that some tapes from the lab are missing.


Maddie collectively groaned as she cleaned out old tapes from the lab. Until recently, there had been a camera monitoring everything that happened in their workspace, however, about eight months ago it had been destroyed when a ghost accidentally escaped from the portal. Since then, both Fenton parents had neglected to replace it. Maddie had finally reached the realization that it was probably never going to be restored and decided to sift through the old tapes. It was supposed to be a simple task, getting rid of anything unimportant. She would watch the tapes for a little bit to see if there was any footage worth salvaging before outing them in a discard pile. Simple, right?

She had started out by watching tapes from when she and Jack were constructing the Fenton Ghost Portal and moving on from there. While a majority of the footage was plainly dull, Maddie was able to find some of it enjoyable to watch. She and Jack playing a checkers game and telling college stories while the kids were away for the weekend... Jazz dancing around the lab when she thought no one was watching... Danny laughing at his sister who he had found waltzing with a broom. Maddie felt like she hardly saw those moments anymore. While Jazz was getting closer and closer to college, Danny was drifting away on his own. Not only was he spending less time with his family, he was neglecting his school work almost completely. What scared Maddie the most is that she didn't know _why_ it was happening. Danny was a good, smart boy, and she couldn't find any reason why he might be acting the way he was. For a millisecond, her mind had leapt to drugs, but after a sweep through all of Danny's hiding places she fortunately found nil.

Maddie returned her attention to the screen she was watching the tapes. On the video, she and Jack were doing some of the wiring on the inside of the portal. That's right... _the portal_. A lot of it had started after Danny received a small shock from the portal. Maddie almost laughed, the thought that the portal had anything to do with it was ridiculous. It's not like it had any long term effects on Danny.

The tape suddenly came to an abrupt stop. Maddie reached for the next tape in the box, only to realize that it wasn't there. _Strange._ She looked at the tape in her hand and found that the next tape in the set was supposed to be the week that she and Jack had finished the portal. Maddie shrugged, Jack had probably taken the tape out of the box to watch it at some point; the portal was one of his life's greatest achievements, after all. So Maddie looked for the next tape in the series and found that the one she had just watched was the last one. That's weird... how could they all be missing? That's two months worth of footage missing from that box.

Maddie was puzzled for the remained of the afternoon. She had attempted asking her family if they knew what happened to the tapes, but none of them held the answers. After that night, Maddie had forgotten all about the missing tapes until two-and-a-half weeks later.

* * *

Two weeks later, Maddie was ready to kill Phantom. He had been found in her son's room fighting a large panther ghost. They not only trashed the room, Danny had to get completely new flooring since the wretched panther tore up the tiles. Maddie, as the niece of a carpenter, decided to start pulling up the original flooring while Danny was at school so it could be replaced later. Normally she would've pressured Jack into helping, but he was attending a ghost seminar two towns over. Armed with a hammer and a crowbar, Maddie set to work in her son's room. It was only about halfway through she noticed something odd. As she pulled one tile up, she discovered that there was something lodged under the floor. Curious, Maddie started to pull it up from where it was stuck.

Maddie sat with a mysterious box in her lap. Her mind was wracked with questions. _How the heck had it gotten under the floor? What was it doing there? What was inside the box?_ Well... only one way to find out. She lifted the lid from the box and discovered that it was filled with tapes. After pulling one out, Maddie almost dropped the entire box in surprise. They were the missing tapes from the lab! Satisfied with one mystery solved, Maddie grinned to herself. That was until she was faced with a new mystery: why had they been _under_ Danny's floor? Maddie tapped her foot in thought for a moment. Maybe something on the tapes would give her a clue to how they got under the floor?

She picked up the box, leaving Danny's floor half completed. She carried the box all the way downstairs where she could watch the tapes on the TV. After sliding the tape from when they completed the portal into the VCR, she leaned back against the couch ready to take notes. Maddie fast-forwarded through most of it, and stopped when she saw herself and Jack testing out the portal for the first time. It didn't work. Maddie recalled how she had felt at the moment: devastated, lost, confused, partially angry at herself for not triple-checking the calculations... Not wanting to see anymore, Maddie jammed the fast-forward button.

She returned the video to it's normal speed when she saw Sam, Tucker, and Danny in the lab two days later. Maddie shrugged to herself, it wouldn't hurt to watch.

"Smile!" A flash of light filled the lab. Sam held a camera, and proudly held up a picture of Danny who was standing near the portal holding his white and back HAZMAT suit.

Danny, having recovered from having a bright light shoved in his faced looked around nervously, "Okay, I showed you the portal. Can we get outta here now? My parents could be back here any minute. Besides, they say it doesn't work anyway."

Maddie chuckled, when Sam and Tucker clearly didn't listen. Sam stood in front of the portal, gazing inside, "Come on Danny, a ghost zone? Aren't you curious? You gotta check it out."

Maddie wondered why Sam never showed that kind of enthusiasm for ghosts around her. Maybe it was a 'my friend's Mom thing'. But if she had known Sam was interested, she would've shown her herself.

Danny, on the other hand, seemed to have made up his mind about the portal, "You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome super cool things that exist on the other side of that portal."

Maddie sighed, she knew what happened next. Danny accidentally got too close to the portal and received a small shock. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to see the next part, but decided to let it play anyway. She watched as Danny put on the white suit. She found herself grinning on how good it looked on him. He should wear that more often, in the lab anyway. She knew he would be embarrassed if she even suggested he wore it somewhere outside the house. You know, she can't remember the last time she saw that HAZMAT. Danny hadn't been wearing it after the accident...

Sam steps forward, "Hang on," she tears the sticker of Jack's face off of the suit. "You can't be walking around with that on your chest."

Wordlessly, she watched as her son started walking towards the portal. She braced herself... any moment now. Instead, she watched in horror as Danny disappeared inside the portal. The most nasty feeling of guilt and fear twisted inside her, bringing hot tears to her eyes. _Danny... no! You never told me – never told that you were inside the portal. If I'd known..._

Maddie's world came crashing down when a green flash obscured the camera, and all that could be heard was the piercing screams of her son and the whirring of the portal. Those screams were the most terrifying sound any mother could ever fathom. Maddie began to cry. She wanted to pause the video, but she couldn't bring herself to. She had to know what happened to her son. She had to know that he was alright. ( _A ridiculous thought_ , she told herself. _You_ know _he's fine, it's just the shock kicking in._ )

Suddenly, the screaming lowered to a whimper, and the light began to dim. _Thank God it's over_ , Maddie thought. _I can't believe he went through so much pain and never told me. I feel betrayed as a mother. Did he believe that I'd be mad if I found out he went inside the portal? My poor baby..._

Expecting to see a disgruntled Danny come out of the portal, Maddie was taken by surprise when the tape showed a wide-eyed Danny Phantom stumbling out of the portal. Her mind backtracked. Where was her son? She watched as the Phantom on the screen fell to the floor and groaned. What happened next sent chills down Maddie's spine.

Phantom, green eyes haphazardly glowing, looked up at Danny's two horrified friends, "Sam... Tucker... what just happened?" Maddie wondered how Phantom knew Sam and Tucker. Seeing as that was the first time the portal opened, he couldn't have met them before seeing as how he was from the Ghost Zone.

Sam and Tucker shared a look for a moment before returning their attention to Phantom. "Danny," Sam croaked, "Is that you?"

Maddie was even more confused. Why did Sam think Phantom was her son? Speaking of, when was Danny coming out of the portal? Question after question racked up in Maddie's mind, leaving her grasping for answers. Then it hit her, Sam thought Phantom was Danny. Danny was nowhere to be seen. _Was it possible that...? No, it can't be. It's scientifically impossible. How could her son be alive and a ghost at the same time?_

The boy in the video looked up at Sam and nodded, "W- why wouldn't I be me?"

So it was... But how could that be right? How was it that Danny was secretly a ghost and hadn't told her? As a mother, she would've seen past it. After all, your child is still your child no matter what.

"You look different, man," Tucker said. "The portal must've... must've done something. You should look in a mirror."

Maddie felt forlorn. She felt angry at herself for leading her child to believe that he couldn't come to her with this. Just why?! Why Danny? Why would her own son let her hunt him? All those times she and Jack would go on long spiels on how they were going to tear the ghost boy apart 'molecule by molecule'. The entire time he'd been standing right! He must've felt horrible about himself, a ghost in a family of ghost hunters. Every time she called Phantom 'disgusting ectoplasmic scum'. If he'd just spoken up...

The Danny on the video slowly stood up from the floor. His steps were shaky as he made his way to the lab mirror and sink. A loud gasp was heard as he took in his reflection.

"M- my hair. It's... it's completely... And the suit... What the-? Are my eyes glowing? Sam! Tucker! This isn't good. How am I supposed to explain this to my parents. No, forget that. What even _happened_ to me? Why the heck do I look like this?"

"Um Danny," Sam said quietly.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You're kind of sinking down into the floor."

Danny looked down and screamed. The lower half of his body had disappeared into the floor. Sam and Tucker quickly ran forward him and pulled him back onto his feet.

" _What_ was that?" Tucker stared at Danny.

"I don't... I don't..." Danny's expression was one of panic and horror. Sam held her hand up, and placed it on Danny's neck, checking for a pulse.

"Danny, I hate to say this," Sam said suddenly, "but I think you might be a ghost. I can't find a pulse."

"But..." Danny protested, "ghosts aren't... ghosts aren't real. My parents have always been crazy. Their job is supposed to be a joke. I can't be a ghost." Danny looked at his reflection once more, and repeated more quietly, "I can't be a ghost..."

"I'm really sorry Danny," Sam started crying, "but it looks like it. Oh God," she choked, "this is all my fault. I killed my best-friend."

"Sam, please don't say that. You didn't kill me, I'm still here."

"Danny, you don't have a pulse. You're still here, but I also – I _killed_ you."

The three were silent for a minute, taking in their new reality. Sam continued crying while Tucker comforted her, and Danny stared at his feet. Suddenly, he looked up, and met Sam's eyes, "It's not your fault. Whatever happens after this, know that it's not your fault."

Sam didn't reply. Instead, Tucker broke the silence, "So what _are_ we supposed to do now?"

Danny put his hand to his face, "I don't know how I'm going to tell my parents. They've spent all their lives hating ghosts, it's literally in their job description. So how I am supposed to tell them that I'm one? That their son is now the one thing they hate most in the universe..." Danny choked back a sob, "I don't want to be a ghost. I'm too young to die. I don't want to be dead, not yet."

Maddie watched in fascination as a white ring sprung into existence around Danny's waist. He let out a momentary cry of surprise as the ring split into two, one moving upwards towards his head, the other towards his feet. As the rings passed over his body they revealed the clothes he had been wearing before the accident and eventually changing his white hair and glowing green eyes to their normal jet-black and cool blue.

"What was that?" Danny asked. All of a sudden, he was hugged by both Sam and Tucker. "Um guys?"

"You're back to normal," Sam said. "Look."

And he did look, seeing that his negative appearance had disappeared and that his normal look had returned. "Am I still alive?"

Sam checked his pulse and beamed, "Looks so. Though your pulse is a little slow."

"So what do you think that white-hair thing was?" Tucker asked.

"Whatever it was, let's hope that it never happens again," Danny said.

"Do you feel okay?" Sam asked, "I mean, you _were_ just electrocuted."

"A little thirsty actually," Danny replied.

"Let's go get some water, then." Sam tried to grab Danny's hand, but almost fell backwards when her hand went through him.

"What the... why is that still happening!?" Danny asked wildly.

"Maybe it's a temporary side effect?" Tucker suggested.

"What if it's _not_ temporary?" Danny said slowly.

"Here, do this. If you were able to turn from that ghost thing to normal, try to turn back into a ghost," Sam suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Danny said.

"Just try," Sam urged. "That way we can tell if it's temporary or not."

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," Danny muttered as a new ring of light appeared around his waist. Even though he was less surprised, he still gawked as it moved up his body. Moments later, a white-haired and green eyed ghost was standing in his place.

"Great," Danny said sardonically, "I'm still a ghost. My parents are going to kill me – wait, can I even die like this?"

"But Danny, you're not just a ghost," Sam reassured him. "We've seen that you're still human too. It's like you're... both at the same time."

Danny blinked and glanced at his new ghostly body, "How does that even work?"

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out," Sam boldly declared.

Danny looked at Sam, and then at his hands. He closed his eyes in concentration as he focused on going back to human. He sighed, "This is all too much to take in one day. I feel like I need to sleep for a week."

"After what just happened," Tucker said, "I don't blame you."

"You guys won't tell my parents right? If they find out something happened to me, I don't know how they would react. If they find out, I at least want to be the one to tell them... if I tell them. Right now I'm really sure if it's a good idea."

Maddie bit her lip. _So her son really didn't trust her with this secret. Why couldn't she have appeared to be more of a supportive mother? Why wasn't she there for her children when they needed her, in moments like those._

"Of course," Sam and Tucker answered.

"Danny," Sam said, "we will be there for you. No matter what, dead, alive, or both. I mean, we're in this together now, right?"

"Right."

The three walked upstairs, out of the camera's range. The tape kept on rolling, showing the empty lab and the new glowing portal. Maddie fast-forwarded to when she and Jack had mysteriously found the portal functioning. She watched where Danny reluctantly told them that he had turned it on and gotten a 'small shock' in the process. She watched herself ask Danny if he needed medical attention, and he quickly refused it. She watched as she and Jack brushed off their son and returned to marveling at the portal. _She was a horrible mother._

After a while, Maddie stopped the tape and went to resume working on Danny's floor. She needed something simple to focus on so her brain wouldn't overload. Her son, Danny Fenton, doubled as Amity Park's ghost fighter, Danny Phantom. Her son was half ghost, and he had been unwillingly to share such a large part of his life with her. One thing was certain, she was having a long talk with Danny once he got back from school.

* * *

"Hey Danny," Maddie said once he walked through the door from school, "can we talk? Just the two of us?"

"Uh... sure," Danny replied, throwing his backpack on the floor. He walked across the room and sat next to his mom on the couch. It was just the two of them in the house. "So what'cha want to talk about?"

"You know how I was starting on pulling up the tiling in your room so we could replace it?" she asked.

"Yeah," Danny nodded, not seeing where this was going, "what about it?"

"Well when I was doing that this afternoon, I found something in the floor."

Danny immediately paled, "I – in the floor? Why would there be anything _in_ my floor?"

Maddie continued, "It was a box of missing tapes from the lab."

"You didn't-"

"Yeah," Maddie finished. "I watched them. Well, the first one at least."

"Oh," Danny said quietly. "So I'm guessing you know."

"That you're Danny Phantom? I kind of caught on."

"I'm sorry," Danny said quickly. "For not telling you, for fighting ghosts instead of studying, for shooting at you that one time. It was an accident – there was this ghost overshadowing people and I thought you were overshadowed so I shot you. I'm sorry for all the constant lies, running off at the worst times, and missing curfew. And I'm sorry that you even have to find out that I'm a ghost, I mean, that alone should be painful enough for you."

"Danny, while I am shocked, I'm not upset that you're a ghost. I'll love you the same not matter what you are, whether that's boy, ghost, or something in between. You're still my son. Though, I am disappointed that you didn't tell me."

"I know," Danny said. "There was a time where I intended to tell you, but I could never find the words. Then eventually I became Public Enemy No. 1, and it would've just been weird telling you then, so I just went along with never telling you."

"I have a lot of questions," Maddie said.

"I expected that sooner or later. Ask away, I'll try to answer best I can."

"How does it feel to actually be a ghost? How does the change feel?"

"Uh... I've kind of adjusted to the feeling of being a ghost, but I guess you just feel a million pounds lighter, and really cold. That and I can fly, so there's the floaty feeling. And for the change... the best way to explain it is that you feel like a bunch of cold water has been poured over you. But I'm used to it now."

Maddie smiled at her son, "Is there any way you could show me now?"

Danny looked at her quizzically, "Turn into Phantom?"

Maddie nodded, and Danny quickly summoned the white rings. Once again, they moved up and down his body, changing his hair to white and eyes to green.

"So yeah," Danny said, "this is me."

Danny and Maddie spent the remainder of the night talking, Danny answering questions about his powers, his experiences as Phantom, and everything in between. Maddie listened with open ears, and was glad to hear what her son had been doing for the past few months without her knowledge. Leading a double life... she would've never guessed that. Or the fact that Amity's hero happened to be her son. For the most part, she was content with knowing who her son was (even though she felt horribly guilty for her poor parenting), but some of the more ghostly things she would have to get used to. Like Danny phasing through walls to get the two of them some ice-cream. But still, just when she had almost given up on figuring Danny out, he had come back to her.


End file.
